Nobody's paying attention to this show about the PC revolution and it's time for that to change

It was easy to write off the first season of "Halt and Catch
Fire." Almost too easy.

Part of it had nothing to do with the show itself—a drama about a
group of misfits who band together to reverse engineer IBM's
personal computer and inadvertently end up revolutionizing the
industry.

Unfortunately for the show, the network it was on very quickly
overshadowed the content of the series itself.

When "Halt and Catch Fire" was about to debut last summer, it was
almost painfully obvious how much AMC needed a hit.

"Breaking Bad" had just concluded the year before after having
its final season split across two years, and "Mad Men" was on
hiatus, having done the same thing. It felt like the network was
stalling for time, looking for a critical hit to pair with the
immense commercial success of "The Walking Dead."

In that climate, "Halt and Catch Fire" never really got a fair
shake. Regardless of the actual intent behind the show, it was
seen as AMC's attempt to build another "Mad Men," and the show's
first few episodes seemed to confirm that: a period setting, a
charismatic lead with a dark past, and a bit of sex thrown in for
good measure.

Visually, it lacked anything
nearly as identifiable or iconic as the retro-cool-yet-arty vibe
of "Mad Men," or the wide-angle loneliness of "Breaking Bad." It
didn't have a lead character as charismatic as John Hamm's Don
Draper, or as thoughtfully drawn as Brian Cranston's Walter
White.

In fact, Lee Pace seems almost
hamstrung in the early episodes of "Halt and Catch Fire,"
shoehorned into a role that doesn't seem to give him much to do
other than be Don Draper via Patrick Bateman, only with less
murder. If you've seen Pace in "Pushing Daisies," you'll find
yourself wishing the show gave him more to do.

Here's the good news though: It does, and over the 10 episodes of
season one, the entire show starts to really gel and assert its
own identity. And it becomes something quite good.

The problem with those early episodes—and the thing that might
lead you to impulsively pass on the show—is that they do a pretty
bad job of signaling what the show is actually about, or
suggesting what its most compelling aspects might be. And Lee
Pace's Joe MacMillan, isn't necessarily at the center of it all.

Instead, what makes "Halt and Catch Fire" truly fascinating is
the way it chronicles the birth of consumer tech culture, and the
huge role women had in the early tech scene—something that's
almost entirely been written out of recent history in favor of
celebrating men like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg.

That the show improves so
quickly over the course of such a brief season—it really figures
itself out about six episodes into its 10-episode first season—is
a pretty good sign of how quickly the show's creators caught on
to what works and what doesn't.

Its second season, which
premiered May 31 (and can be watched onAMC's website for
free) is a bit of a soft
reboot, with a renewed focus on two of the best characters on the
show: Mackenzie Davis' Cameron Howe and Kerry Bishé's Donna Clark
in new roles as leader's of Cameron's new startup,
Mutiny.

Season 2 is a bit of a
soft reboot with a big focus on the show's lead women Cameron
Howard (Mackenzie Davis) and Donna Clark (Kerry
Bishé).AMC

With all that said, the show
isn't without flaws—it is yet another show about people being
terrible to others in order to get what they want, and its narrow
focus can make it seem extremely homogeneous—it's not going to
win any diversity awards anytime soon (although D.B. Woodside of
"24" fame makes a memorable appearance in the seventh episode).
But it's early enough in the show's run—and improving quickly
enough—to make the 11-episode catch-up binge worth
considering.